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2010 men's Olympic hockey tournament
Topic Started: Feb 8 2010, 04:45 PM (2,582 Views)
hobbes
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I have no idea if anyone on here cares about hockey, but the men’s Olympic hockey tournament is the only thing in my life that rivals the World Cup.

The competition gets started Tuesday and I legitimately think it’s a pretty wide-open chase for gold. With home ice, everyone is calling Canada favourites, but I think there’s four teams with a strong shot and two or three more with a small chance if the draw breaks right for them and their goaltending gets hot.

Some are predicting blowouts in the first round, but I think the draw is pretty balanced and I’m not expecting things to get too lopsided (though Belarus’ injury problems could make it an ugly tourney for them). Plus there’s some tantalizing first round games — Czechs-Slovaks, US-Canada, Sweden-Finland.

In one sense I feel it’s a shame that the tournament almost completely over-shadows the Games themselves for some people (and I’m definitely one of them), but on the other hand, this year might the fairest best-on-best competition we’ve had in hockey history and I can’t ask for more than that.

I don’t know how wall-to-wall the soccer coverage for the World Cup is in a soccer-mad nation, but to give you a slight idea of what Olympic hockey means in Canada 23 television stations aired the naming of the men’s team live.

cheers,
hobbes
Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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ursus arctos
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I didn't that you had 23 stations in Canada, hobbes . . .

More seriously, I complete agree with you about the potential for this tournament. I was lucky enough to go to several games in Torino, and the quality of play was exceptional. Let's hope that the pressure of playing at home doesn't overwhelm Team Canada (and that the attention given to the tournament doesn't overwhelm the Games as a whole).
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Yogi
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I am looking forward to the tournament too. Canada can handle the pressure of playing at home and I think rightfully are the favorites with the Russians, Americans and Czechs always going to be in consideration too. But one thing I have learned about international hockey tournaments is never count Sweden out. But playing on home ice I still think Canada will win it all.
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hobbes
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ursus arctos,Feb 8 2010
07:01 PM
I didn't that you had 23 stations in Canada, hobbes . . .

I didn’t either! Actually there are 11 channels showing the Games and I hadn’t heard of a few of them, but I guess they’re being broadcast in Punjabi (Hockey Night in Canada is now broadcast in Punjabi, welcome to 21st century Canada), Italian and on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

I think Sweden has more talent than the US or the Czechs. The Finns also consistently perform well at the Games (they’ve won a medal in four of the last six Olympics, that’s pretty impressive).

What’s interesting to me is that while Canada has the most complete team, I think there could be some questions in goal and the Russians have better goaltending and better forwards. But there’s questions about the Russians’ D, though I’ve been impressed with the KHLers like Nikulin and Korneyev at the recent Worlds.

The Finns and US have the best goaltending, but may not have the talent of Russia, Canada, Sweden.

The format is also pretty interesting, being the best second place team could be crucial and is someone starts slowly it could be a tough road if they’re sixth or seventh after the preliminary round.

I don’t know if there will be as many upsets as there were in 06 (I’m jealous you got to see Games live ursus arctos). Remember Finland and Slovakia won their pools and Switzerland were second behind Finland! I really think there’s more parity than ever.

But I really do love this draw. In addition to three traditional rivalry games, you get a Canada-Swiss rematch and a Sweden-Belarus rematch and Russia-Latvia and Russia-Czech could both have a little extra intensity.

Even Norway-US in Vancouver has a little historical significance that won’t be lost on the Norwegians or the Vancouver fans (provided there are fans at these Games, I never really know if Regular Joes get to attend these games).

cheers,
hobbes

Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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ursus arctos
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I never really know if Regular Joes get to attend these games.

Well, my name isn't Joe, but in Torino, it was actually possible to buy tickets for many of the first round matches on the day of the game. I have a feeling that Vancouver is going to be rather different in that regard.
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hobbes
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I know a local guy who won one of the ticket lotteries and he's getting seats for all of the hockey he wanted. And he was smart. He got four tickets and is using two. He sold the other two sets of tickets for around $25,000 and using that money to cover his airfare, accommodations (which won't be cheap at all) and the cost of the first set of tickets. eBay has gold medal tickets in the $5-6,000 range.

It's good that at least they're using a decent sized venue this time around. The Big Hat in Nagano sat 9,500, the E Center in Salt Lake had 10,100. The Palasport Olimpico was a good size (12,350).

GM Place seats 18,810 and is over 20,000 is you count private boxes (though I'm sure the media needs will cut capacity), so that should help meet demand — especially for games not involving Canada or the US, though there are games being played at Thunderbird Arena at UBC but that still seats 7,200 which is much bigger than any of the other secondary venues at a previous games.

cheers,
hobbes
Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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Sammy Maudlin
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Two questions:

1) How are the groups divided and what is the tournament format?

2) How long have the teams, especially those with NHL players, had to train together?

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ursus arctos
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1). Three groups of four, with each team playing the others once, At the end of that round, the teams are ranked 1-12 based on points, then goal difference, goals scored, and IIHF ranking. The top 4 go directly to the quarterfinals, with the other 8 playing off for the other 4 quarterfinal slots. From that point on, it is single elimination.

2) Only a couple of days, but keep in mind that all of the medal contenders have at least a good portion of their squad playing in the NHL, so it is a relatively even playing field. Some countries have also chosen to keep NHL teammates together (Canada are playing an entire line from the San Jose Sharks, for instance).
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Gunners
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I don't watch the NHL very often, but I've always loved Olympic hockey. Just a better game IMHO. I took a look at the rosters, and based upon my recognition of players from past international competitions and my extremely limited NHL knowledge, I'm guessing that Canada and Russia are the favorites, followed by Sweden. However, I suspect that the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, and the U.S. aren't far behind. I was amazed that I didn't recognize the names of fully 1/3 of the American players, but typically the U.S. team is better than the sum of its parts, so I'm going on faith.
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ursus arctos
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That's pretty close to the consensus view, Gunners, though a lot of people would put Finland in the top tier because Miikka Kiprusoff is arguably the hottest goalie in the world right now (and because the Finns have a history of over-performing at the Olympics and are in what is thought to be the weakest group).

BTW, I realize now that I failed to respond to the question about the composition of the groups:

Group A: Canada, US, Switzerland, Norway
Group B: Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia
Group C: Sweden, Finland, Belarus, Germany

Full schedule here and team rosters here.

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Yogi
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ursus arctos,Feb 11 2010
07:57 PM
1). Three groups of four, with each team playing the others once, At the end of that round, the teams are ranked 1-12 based on points, then goal difference, goals scored, and IIHF ranking. The top 4 go directly to the quarterfinals, with the other 8 playing off for the other 4 quarterfinal slots. From that point on, it is single elimination.

2) Only a couple of days, but keep in mind that all of the medal contenders have at least a good portion of their squad playing in the NHL, so it is a relatively even playing field. Some countries have also chosen to keep NHL teammates together (Canada are playing an entire line from the San Jose Sharks, for instance).

This has to be the only tournament I have ever heard of where a ranking is used as one of the factors to determine who goes through to the next round. Well, now that i think about it, this sounds like the ridiculous system they use in college football bowl games with the BCS!

I am looking forward to this tournament though and I appreciate the list of the rosters. Notice Latvia with a player at Germany's Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams! What happened there, the owner is a Dan Haggerty fan?! :D
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ursus arctos
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Yogi, the ranking is only used to break ties if all of the other measures are equal.

It beats a coin flip . . .

German hockey teams often have bizarre English language names (other favorites include Bremerhafen's "Fischtown Penguins" and the Hamburg Freezers). When we were living in Germany, I was told that the Grizzly Adams series had been quite popular there, thus the attempt by Wolfsburg to capture some of the "magic".

I guess that "Baywatch" didn't really work for a hockey team . . .
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raconteur
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I wonder if all the Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams players have beards! :D

I've also wondered why the Boston Bruins have not tried trading the Slovakian player Satan to the New Jersey Devils! :P

I am not an expert on international hockey but it looks to me like Group B is the toughest group in the opening round. Each of the three groups have two difficult teams in them but what of the remaining teams in each group? I would think Slovakia is the "best of the rest" after you get past the top 6 in the world. Has the Russian-Czech rivalry continues post break up of the Iron Curtain? Somehow I imagine memories of 1968 have not yet disappeared.
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ursus arctos
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No, they don't all have beards. The marketing mavens have missed a trick!

Switzerland are actually the 7th ranked team in the world right now, and generally thought to be the "best of the rest". They also did much better than expected in Torino.

And yes, the Czechs and the Russians still don't like other. Nor do the Finns and the Russians, the Latvians and the Russians, etc.
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hobbes
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I don’t like that the format favours running up the score as much as possible, but after using a format that had the have-nots playing each other without their NHLers in 98 and 02, this is much better. The 06 format (two pools of six, straight crossover in the quarterfinals) was better, but I can live with this.

The teams also had off-season training camps. And there was an exhibition game two nights ago (I think it was Belarus-Switzerland, but I’m not positive).

Plus Belarus has eight players from Dinamo Minsk and Latvia has 15 from Dinamo Riga. So hopefully that familiarity helps them.

Gunners> it’s definitely a new-look American team and with Brian Burke calling the shots there was always going to be some more grit than normal in the roster.

I think your breakdown of where the favourites lie is spot on, but the fact that some of the 4-7 teams have really good goaltending makes for a deeper pool of teams with a real medal shot in my view.

I think the groups are fairly balanced. I would agree that the Slovaks are the best third team, but the Swiss had a great run in 06 and have quality goaltending and won’t be easy to beat. And ultimately they aren’t the be-all and end-all.

It’s too bad Belarus has had a horible run of injuries before the tournament. I was thinking they could at least keep it close in some games. I’m hopeful Latvia can push someone too, though I think Norway is going to be in a for a rough, rough two weeks. The Latvian fans are the best in international hockey, so I’m looking forward to them if nothing else.

cheers,
hobbes



Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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